LOS ANGELES — A trial that could determine the fate of the Los Angeles Clippers has been put on hold until after a deadline to conclude a $2 billion sale of the team — but that expiration date could be extended.

A Los Angeles judge on Thursday said the case won’t finish by Tuesday, but will continue on July 21 because some lawyers for team owner Donald Sterling have personal plans.

Sterling is suing to block his wife’s unilateral deal to sell the team to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

Shelly Sterling testified Thursday that she made the deal with her husband’s consent — then he changed his mind.

Ballmer’s deal is due to expire Tuesday but his lawyer, Adam Streisand, says there’s a provision to extend that another month as long as progress is being made in court.

Mrs. Sterling moved quickly to get bids after the NBA banned her husband from the league for life for making racist comments, and kept him informed daily, she said in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

When she reported that Ballmer had offered $2 billion, Donald Sterling became excited and said she had done a good job, but within days his mood changed, she said.

He became enraged in a conversation, cursed her, said he would never sell the team and would sue the league, she testified.

Shelly Sterling also defended the deal she unilaterally made with Ballmer — which would be a record price for an NBA team — and said she believed the sale would prevent disaster for the Clippers. Mrs. Sterling said she feared players and sponsors would boycott if her husband held on to the team.

Donald Sterling contends that his wife had no right under a family trust that owns the Clippers to singlehandedly make the deal.

In earlier testimony, two doctors hired by Mrs. Sterling to examine him declared that the 80-year-old had Alzheimer’s disease and was mentally incapable to act as administrator of the trust.

In his own testimony this week, Donald Sterling shouted from the witness stand that he would never sell the team.

On Tuesday, he alternately declared his love for his wife of 58 years with tears and then demeaned her as a woman intimidated by the "bad NBA" and incapable of handling such a large financial transaction. Before taking the witness stand, he kissed her.

But on Wednesday, he yelled, "Get away from me, you pig!" when she tried to approach him after her first day of testimony.